Some fun with Grandma

Nana came up to help us for a week just before Christmas, and it was awesome to have her. She helped us get the rest of the painting done so we can sell the house. Here are the mitten cookies sent home with Alexa, I don't know if another parent made them or what, but they are awesome, with licorice ties and everything! She also brought us a cute ornament with her photo in it, and a tealight holder she painted, and a Winnie the Pooh calender.

Alexa decided to play with Nana's Christmas present, and she looked so funny and cute with a fancy scarf and no pants, that we had to take some pictures.

I realize that Mom isn't actually in any of these pictures, but she was present, and Alexa loved playing and reading books with her!

I have more pictures from Christmas, but I just wanted to note here that I got the first Julia Child cookbook for Christmas (anybody else in a bit of a French Cooking mode lately :)?) and made my first recipe from it tonight. It was cream of mushroom soup and though it took about 1.5 hours, it was amazing, and Alexa tried it, even though she hardly ever tries new things, and decided she liked it! She didn't like the mushrooms themselves, and it was hard for her to eat such a runny soup, so she ended up drinking it from the bowl with our permission and encouragement. I was so excited to get something with that much cream and butter in it into her, not to mention the homemade chicken broth!

Turkey

Here is one of the Thanksgiving art projects Alexa brought home.

And here is the outcome of a collision with the playground. She scraped her nose up and cut her forehead open. She got two stitches, which are coming out today. This was not very fun. David and I had to hold her down while he did them, and she was screaming bloody murder the whole time. We had a lovely Thanksgiving here with Adam and Lisa, Conrad and Marissa and Brendan.

This is Conrad's third Thanksgiving at our house, and we love to have him, so we're glad we haven't scared him off yet!

November so far..

I hope I soon click back into blogging mode, meanwhile you all are getting very sporadic updates, but we are still here and still healthy. We have missed getting the swine flu, we got vaccinations before it hit Alexa's school, several of the other schools in town got it big time. I have been knitting busily to get some gifts done, here are Sophia's gloves, dyed in her choice of colors.

Here is one of the pictures Dana took of us.

We are having Thanksgiving dinner at our house again this year. I like it that way despite the chaos because I love to cook all the things that are traditional for our family.

I can't think of what to tell you all because life has been busy, but not terribly newsworthy! I hope you have a terrific Thanksgiving!

Halloween Weekend

We had a really fun weekend with Holly and the kids. We managed to play a board game with Alexa and Sophia. It is an alphabet game, and Alexa is great at it. She knows all her letters! This picture is bad for some reason, my camera must have been on a wierd setting, but I wanted proof..Alexa sat still and focused very well for a long time! The next day we had a big Halloween party for the little kids. Dana did storytime for us.

Quite a few of the older kids loved this. You can tell from Sophia's slack-jawed gaze.

Reese gave me a big smile for the camera.

Dana also brought some finger puppet supplies and the kids made some ghosts, cats, and pumpkins.

Kaia had designs on the large pumpkin, but it proved a bit too much for her.

Jessica helped Zoe and Alexa with their puppets.

Our bird decided to be friendly after spending all day banished to the quiet bedroom, and he loved Jamie.

He wasn't quite as thrilled with Sophia, but he did let her hold him on the stick.
And Alexa really liked it!

Preparing to go trick-or-treating.

Alexa wanted to take the tricycle.

She managed to go this year, and decided she likes to eat Skittles, her first candy!

October in a Whirlwind

I don't know how to catch up in a coherent matter, so this post will probably be a disjointed list of events, but I hope it is better than none. I knit a bunch of things this month, starting with this hat. Then three hats for Dana to photograph babies in and another for me using my handspun. I also made progress on a Christmas gift or two, and finished a scarf for my etsy shop. Here is Alexa holding my favorite model for baby hats.

October was a beautiful month here weather-wise. The leaves were gorgeous, the weather was warmish but not hot. The sun started dropping down in the sky and giving us this incredible afternoon light. Alexa is a tricycling maniac now. She can go at least a mile, so we took a family walk.

This tree was just showing off.

Alexa is still infatuated with monkeys, so she is Curious George for Halloween.

Her teachers sent home some wonderful pictures of Alexa, and a book about five little pumpkins with a picture of Alexa on the front holding five little pumpkins. They are so clever! She went to the pumpkin patch with her kindergarten class in the rain and came back with muddy shoes and a muddy pumpkin. Then yesterday she brought home another pumpkin already carved into a jack-o-lantern, and I know she didn't do that! Pumpkin carving is difficult and I have no idea who went to all that work. There are about 4-5 aides in her class, so maybe one of them?

Yesterday we got to go back to school to her kindergarten class Halloween Party. It was so fun. One of her classmates, Liam, is in a wheelchair, and his family made him an awesome Wall-E costume. The eyes had lights in them hooked up to the wheelchair battery somehow.

They went outside to play and burn off some energy, and Alexa surprised me by climbing this thing all by herself. Made me a bit nervous, but I didn't have to help her.

She pretty much adores the playground, and I agree, it is awesome!

And here is Lianna, who sits next to Alexa and informed me that "Alexa is a great help to me, she gave me a pencil once, and once she picked up some things for me."

Alexa is officially in the Life Skills Classroom, but she is also in this kindergarten class sometimes, for music and art and field trips. She has a desk and cubbies here with her name on them, and the teacher (Mr. K, who is pretty incredible himself) and the aides all told me how much they enjoy Alexa. I really like this arrangement, which allows here lots of interaction with her age group, but a lot of extra help too. We are going to get a communication book too, which will allow her too communicate by pointing to pictures.

It is pretty apparent to everyone, David and I, her teachers, and her speech therapists, that she has a lot to say, she just can't verbalize it, so we are trying to give her another way to do it. Her sign language is limited by her finger dexterity at this point, but we are still doing that too. We still hope she will talk at some point, but we can't put off language development until then. She is learning her letters and the sounds they make. I honestly think she will learn to read before she learns to talk.

Also this month:

Alexa got sick and missed three days of school

She broke her glasses twice.

We got family photos taken.

We painted a bunch of walls and some trim in the house, we are trying to get it ready to sell, in preparation for moving when David gets a job. Meanwhile he is applying for post-docs and working with an OSU professor to get further experience.

I gave blood for the first time ever and didn't pass out, though I did feel very tired the rest of the day.

I have been making pumpkin pies and pear custard bars right and left. I love them both, and this is the season for it!

I took Alexa to OHSU to the GI clinic to make sure she was processing her food correctly. They took blood to test for celiac, and a stool sample to test for fat processing and pancreatic enzymes, and though I haven't heard yet about celiac, the other two were fine. I am trying to help her gain weight, but she is very picky right now. I am very frustrated by this a lot of the time, but I can't force her to try new things.

Ummm, still here

It really is appalling how rarely I am posting lately. I have been quite busy trying to get used to Alexa's school schedule and getting the house painted a bit, and my usual knitting and spinning and horseback riding and exercising. We took a trip at the beginning of the month up to Seattle for Jamie's 9th birthday. The cousins enjoyed playing together.

And swimming in the hotel pool. Sophia knows how to swim now!

Alexa loves the water so much. I took her for some rides on my back using my snorkel.

The first day of school!

Alexa went to the first day of kindergarden today. She was too excited to eat much breakfast, and she had to get up at 6:20 am, but she and Daddy were waiting on the front step at 7:15 for the bus. She gets to ride a big bus to school, and the bus driver who lives two doors down will bring her home.

She has been going to school on the bus for a couple of years now, so this is routine for her, but she was still very excited, although you can't tell from the photo so much.

So now that David doesn't have a job we are at home without Alexa for 5 hours every morning..kind of strange. (She only goes to school for 3 hours, but the bus ride to and from is kind of long.)

A whirlwind of a month

I don't really know how it happened, but a month went by without me updating the blog. I also have this character weakness that goes like this: things start piling up, and then I don't want to tackle them, because they have become so overwhelming that I don't know where to start, so I put it off, and they pile up further, and so on and so forth. I need to get back to the Flylady website and start reading about 15 minutes at a time again! Anyway, I will try to get a little bit caught up here. We ordered a trundle bed for Alexa from ebay, and various problems were encountered, and it didn't actually get here in an undamaged condition until two months after her birthday.

Then, we went to Hawaii. Alexa loves riding buses of all sort, so the shuttle bus to the airport from the parking lot was quite fun for her.

After more than five hours of flight time, we arrived in Kona, HI. Penny bought leis for us all. They smell so wonderful. I remember that smell from the last time I came to Hawaii about 15 years ago.

Hawaii in August was very hot and humid. The house we stayed in was beautiful, but not air-conditioned. Fortunately there was a pool, and Alexa figured out how to swim with her floaty. She never wanted to get out of the pool.

I thought this picture of Penny was so fun, I hope she doesn't mind me sharing.

We went to the volcano, and stopped at this restaurant on the way. It advertises itself as the southermost restaurant in the USA. They had wonderful food!

Alexa's cousin Christopher is 5 years old too, and a chatterbox, so they got on spectacularly.

Our last meal together, breakfast before flying out.